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Post by jfarrell04 on Jan 16, 2015 12:08:05 GMT -5
It really is a joke. I have a parking pass and a WSU student. So when we go to games together, I either have to drop him off "down below" or he/we have to walk from Lot 2 around the building, down stairs (which were dangerously icy on Wednesday BTW), and in through Gate 9 where the line was through the doorway on Wednesday. Another example of how our Athletic Department truly is poorly managed.
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Post by wsuraider09 on Jan 16, 2015 12:28:27 GMT -5
When i was a student i picked up the entire season worth of tickets. Obviously they were passed out to non students long enough for that to be axed several years ago. A couple bad apples ruined it for the rest of the students.
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Post by bballraider on Jan 16, 2015 12:41:55 GMT -5
I've complained about this for several years. Students should be driving the atmosphere at the games, we should be doing everything we can to make it easy for them to get to the games. Stopping the students from getting tickets in advance has been one of the dumbest things the athletic department has done in my opinion.
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Post by wolf41 on Jan 16, 2015 17:20:50 GMT -5
I am truly shocked to hear this. I see no reason for such a cumbersome policy. No wonder more students don't attend the games. I would think that giving tickets to students during the week before the game would be routine, or have just have an annual card to read by scanner. Make it easy to attend games rather than encumbering the student.
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Post by uptempo on Jan 16, 2015 18:32:33 GMT -5
I liked the way it used to be a few years ago. Each student got two tickets to the game for free (not really free, it was part of the tuition charge). If the student could not attend the game the student could give the "free" tickets away to a friend. This is one reason why the crowds were so large back in the 90's because a lot of people were there at the game using their kids tickets. Larger crowds lead to more concession sales and a general buzz in the community that WSU games are a place to go to. The Nutter Center is only about 30% full, let students have more flexibility with their tickets to do with as they please and get more fans in the seats. How can anyone be against this?
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Post by wsuraider09 on Jan 16, 2015 19:37:35 GMT -5
I remember when, what I would call the original Raider Rowdie crew (myself, gerb, among others) dressed up and handed out hundreds of tickets in the days before home games. I'm not on campus anymore, but that's obviously not happening anymore. This problem is particular exemplified by extremely small doors and lobby at gate 9, which is where most people who park across the lake (who walk) end up coming in. Trying to form some type of a queue system for students to get their tickets, and try to allow those with tickets to move forward was absolute chaos for both students, and paying attendees. It would be great for everyone if they would do as you say. I'm sure there are people who would go get tickets for family/friends to go for free...but who really cares? Butts in seats makes for a better atmosphere, which equals more home wins, equals better TV games, equals better recruits, more concession sales, more TV revenue, increased possibility of returning to pay for tickets, donate to the program, or even become a season ticket holder. Yeah...nobody wants any of that.
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Post by Big D on Jan 16, 2015 21:25:46 GMT -5
We don't give out tickets to students in advance because we were giving out 1000s of tickets that were never used or not being used by students. Students would pick up tickets and not show up to games to use them or they would given them away to non-students which was costing us revenue. I agree with most here. It was a stupid decision to change the way we do student tickets and hurts our student turnout.
Personally, I don't think we should issue tickets to students at all. Section 210-215 of the Nutter Center are already set up student use. Let students show up at any entrance to the Nutter Center they want and have their student ID scanned as their ticket and tell them they can sit anywhere they want in any of those sections.
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Post by Sixth Man on Feb 12, 2015 19:29:53 GMT -5
I was pondering my first post and have come to the conclusion that Donlon is not to blame. He is just the coach. The reason there are no grand expectations for Wright State Basketball anymore is because of poor leadership by the AD. WSU does not do a good job of marketing their product. Quick story: I was on a cruise last week and I met a young couple in their late 20's who both graduated from Wright State and now live in Springboro. I asked them if they attended many basketball games. They said they like basketball, had some players in their classes, and they kept track of how the team was doing. However, they said they did not attend any games while going to Wright State. I asked them why they didn't go to the games. They said cost. I said that each student got two free tickets to each home game. They said that they hadn't heard about the free tickets and they were pissed off that no one had told them about the free tickets. This is not a one time occurrence. I always ask WSU students that I meet if they go to the games, most say no, and most of them are not aware that the tickets are free. You cannot blame the athletic department for students being stupid. That information is spoon feed to every student at least a dozen different ways that you cannot miss it even if you try.
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Post by riceownz2 on Feb 13, 2015 16:04:20 GMT -5
I was pondering my first post and have come to the conclusion that Donlon is not to blame. He is just the coach. The reason there are no grand expectations for Wright State Basketball anymore is because of poor leadership by the AD. WSU does not do a good job of marketing their product. Quick story: I was on a cruise last week and I met a young couple in their late 20's who both graduated from Wright State and now live in Springboro. I asked them if they attended many basketball games. They said they like basketball, had some players in their classes, and they kept track of how the team was doing. However, they said they did not attend any games while going to Wright State. I asked them why they didn't go to the games. They said cost. I said that each student got two free tickets to each home game. They said that they hadn't heard about the free tickets and they were pissed off that no one had told them about the free tickets. This is not a one time occurrence. I always ask WSU students that I meet if they go to the games, most say no, and most of them are not aware that the tickets are free. You cannot blame the athletic department for students being stupid. That information is spoon feed to every student at least a dozen different ways that you cannot miss it even if you try. I have to agree here. You can't blame the AD. They do a pretty good job at informing students about the games.
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Post by wsuraider09 on Feb 13, 2015 21:19:07 GMT -5
I have to completely agree with you ty. I was on campus from 05-07 and then again in 12-14 as a student. In 05-07 there was no student notification. There was basically myself, Jeff, Matt, Jeremy, and a few other of the original Raider Rowdies who literally went around handing out tickets to anyone who would take them just to get student attendance up. This spawned the birth of the Raider Rowdy group, which was headed up by tbrf and raider rowdies. There are signs EVERYWHERE, there is facebook, twitter, instagram, snapchat. Signs on buses, signs on billboards around campus. They put out those stupid plastic pop up signs all over campus on game day. Students know the games are free. The main problem is the basis of commuter students who have to return to campus to go to games. If we had the on campus student basis like that team across town has, or any large program across the country where everybody lives within a few walking minutes of campus, our attendance would be better. It has to be a hell of a game, or the team has to be on a hell of a tear to get a decent showing. There's not a good fix for this, but the students know. If they don't, then they are probably literally blind.
But what non-hardcore student is going to drive 20 minutes from S'boro, Centerville, Tipp City, Xenia etc. to come to the game. It just doesn't happen.
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Post by hhgreen on Feb 14, 2015 6:48:33 GMT -5
I get the feeling the only way students come to the game is too support a winning program and if we have a an opponent with notoriety. Butler for instance. Right now we don't have an opponent that has that.
Giving free tickets to students is a great thing but having to drag them here kicking and screaming all the way to the Nutter Center is pathetic.
Here are 4 things that would help attendance:
1. Get teams on the schedule that a casual 20 year old student has heard of.
2. Winning the Horizon League Tourney so we go to the Big Dance. That matters more than how many wins we get, if we lose more than 6 games per season. With our present schedule 6 losses is not an at large bid anyways. Going to the NCAA tourney a little more often will solve a lot.
3. The powers at be punish the casual fan to park in the back of the Nutter Center over the hill with half the parking lot at the top empty. Not a good thing to welcome a first time visit to a Raider game.
4. If we are running a promotional with free t-shirts and the like we usually get close to 6,000 fans or thereabouts would someone at least open another concession stand or two?
I will say this. Even though we lost the game with the Flames the other night the second half play of that game would bring in more fans. We were the aggressor that whole half. Those 5 players just ran out of gas to get the win.
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Post by wsuraider09 on Feb 14, 2015 9:10:42 GMT -5
I'd like to add one more thing...Considering the last 3-4 seasons, our absolute best student turnout was the last game of the season last year..with a ticket to the big dance on the line, the students came out in droves. The issue with the way this was handled probably left a sour taste in a lot of students mouths...but we had close to 2000 students show up...
Oh, and we only had 2 days notice. WSU pulled in the best student turnout in years, with 2 days notice.
The kids are aware the tickets are free, and lack the motivation or desire. With the team playing down, the only way you're going to get many students to show up is have a give-away, or a pre-game party. But WSU is constricted largely in part due to the commuter population. I commuted all my WSU years, and at the end, walking across the pond really pissed me off. That's a legitimate concern. There's not a good fix...until WSU constantly performs, or builds 5x the number of dorms, we won't see the student turnout. Period.
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Post by Fastbreak on Feb 14, 2015 13:40:54 GMT -5
If students have to do "research" in order to figure out how to get tickets that kind of proves the point that the athletic department isn't marketing efficiently. Student's don't have to do any kind of research whatsoever to find out how to get tickets to find out when games are going to take place. That information is spoon feed to them in dozens of ways by our athletic department. My comment about doing some research was directed solely to Ty, who is not a Wright State student and is complaining that our students are not being informed. He is complaining about something that he no knowledge of whatsoever. He is the individual that needs to do his homework before he slanders the hard work that several members of our athletic department do everyday.
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Post by Raider Pride on Feb 14, 2015 13:57:01 GMT -5
Honestly, any student that says the don't know that they can attend games for free or don't know when the games are being played are actively trying to avoid that information. My son is a sophomore at Wright State currently. Off the top of my head I know I have seen this information first hand the following ways:
--Printed version of his student handbook --online version of his student handbook --Wright State's academic site --Wright State's athletic site --Wright State's facebook page --Wright State's twitter page --Wright State's newspaper (the guardian) both online and in print all over campus --posters all over campus and all over his dorms --flyers all over campus and all over the dorms --e-mails to his wright state e-mail account --many general education professors will offer extra credit to students that bring in a ticket stub from a Wright State athletic event as a way to get students to get involved with campus activities --other students
I am sure that there are many other ways I am missing but I think the above examples are enough to demonstrate that our students are informed about men's basketball games. You can debate all you want about why students decide to not attend games but lack of knowledge of games is not one of them.
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Post by jfarrell04 on Feb 14, 2015 14:05:17 GMT -5
Regardless of whether or not sufficient word is being sent out to WSU students, our athletic department is rife with incompetence. It’s rank amateurism to the core. To think otherwise is either exhibiting blind loyalty or blind stupidity. It has nothing to do with the current product being put on the Nutter Center floor, but everything to do with the Nutter Center "experience". Neither the AD nor the SID has any business being anywhere near a Division 1 Men’s Basketball program. Unfortunately, there does not appear to be any light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a sad, sad situation. Ralph’s gotta be rolling over in his grave.
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